Sisi meets Ismail, Nasr to discuss promoting investment

CAIRO – 28 May 2018: Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi met on Monday with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Minister of Investment, Sahar Nasr, where they reviewed the government’s efforts to provide an encouraging atmosphere for foreign investments.

Sisi ordered to continue developing investment promotion tools in the Egyptian market in line with the new and under-establishment mega national projects nationwide, according to Bassam Rady, presidential spokesperson.

Nasr pointed out that the Egyptian economy has gained the confidence of international institutions in the recent period, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Rady added.

The international rating agency, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), has raised early May Egypt’s sovereign credit rating to (B) from (B-) based on Egypt’s progress in implementing structural reforms to support investment and GDP growth.

Egypt’s credit rating rise is the first since 2011, when the country witnessed a large-scale social upheaval.

Egypt embarked on a bold economic reform program in 2014 that includes cutting energy subsidies and introducing new taxes to cut the budget deficit.

Egypt floated its local currency in November 2016, after which it clinched a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Foreign reserves have been increasing since then. Reserves were only $19.041 billion at the end of October 2016.